Every Cloud has a silver lining

Every Cloud Productions’ Deb Cox and Fiona Eagger are set to hire producer/writer teams with the accent on youth as they ramp up development.

The producers of Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries, The Gods of Wheat and East of Everything are expanding thanks to funding from Screen Australia’s new Enterprise Industry program.

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“This is perfect timing,” Cox tells IF. “We had applied to the Enterprise program before. We have produced a lot for a two-person team. Now with renewed resources and energy we can develop a vibrant mixed slate of projects.”

Every Cloud’s Parlay program will see the funding allocated to projects in four categories including an international co-production, a Western Australian-based family drama and a multi-platform drama.

Cox says she and Eagger are evaluating a number of ideas for the international co-pro which will be bigger and more ambitious than anything they’d done before.

The producers will look to tap into the client base and connections of All3Media International, which has sold Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries to every major international territory.

Susie Campbell will produce the WA-set drama set during the turn of the 20th Century, with Cox and Eagger as EPs. Cox can’t name the property yet as she is negotiating for the rights.

The multi-platform drama entitled Deadlock will be developed in partnership with regional screen development organisation Northern Rivers Screenworks.

It’s inspired by two real-life events, a car crash near Byron Bay in which four teenage boys died, and the gang rape of a 13-year-old girl in the same region.

There will be multiple tiers of storytelling on multiple screen platforms, delivered simultaneously. Northern Rivers Screenworks will manage a residential workshop attended by up to eight young filmmakers from all over Australia.

“We would love to grow a new generation of writers and directors who will work on Deadlock and go on to other things,” Cox says.

The fourth category is passion projects. “We get approaches all the time from people who want us to develop works for them, ”Cox explains. “Hopefully we will find some strong stories that are worth telling.”

The third series of Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries, starring Essie Davis as glamorous private detective Miss Phryne Fisher, is expected to premiere on the ABC soon.

The ABC renewed the series after a grass roots campaign by passionate fans which utilised social media. As for the prospects of a fourth season, Cox says, “If there are no hitches we expect it will go ahead. We’ve already done some speculative development.”

Davis, whose profile got a mighty boost internationally from The Babadook, most recently starred in A Poet in New York, a BBC America telemovie written by House of Cards’ Andrew Davies. She plays Caitlin Thomas, wife of hard-drinking poet Dylan Thomas (Tom Hollander).